You walk across the parking lot, unlock your car, and get inside you start the engine and shift into REVERSE, and you look into the rear view mirror to back out of your parking space and younotice a piece of paper stuck to the middle of the rear window. So, You shift into PARK, unlock your doors and jump out of your car to remove that paper (or whatever it is) that is obstructing your view.

When you reach the back of your car, that is when the car jackers appear out of nowhere, jump into your car and take off! Your engine was running and they practically mow you down as they speed off in your car. And guess what ladies? I bet your purse is still in the car...

BE AWARE OF THIS NEW SCHEME THAT IS NOW BEING USED.

Just drive away and remove the paper that is stuck to your Window later,and be thankful that you read this e-mail. I hope you will forward this to friends and family... especially to women! A purse contains all of your identification, and you certainly do NOT want someone getting your address.

The Marine Corps Gunnery Sergeant in the picture is Michael Burghard, part of the Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) Team that is supporting 2nd Brigade 28th Infantry Division (Pennsylvania Army National Guard). I heard the below story first hand last Saturday during a video teleconference between his Brigade Commander and the 28th Infantry Division Commander. I thought that others should hear it as well, as I think it demonstrates the true spirit of most of our troops on the ground (from my experience).

Leading the fight is Gunnery Sgt Michael Burghardt, known as "Iron Mike" or just "Gunny". He is on his third tour in Iraq. He had become a legend in the bomb disposal world after winning the Bronze Star for disabling 64 IEDs and destroying 1,548 pieces of ordnance during his second tour. Then, on September 19, he got blown up. He had arrived at a chaotic scene after a bomb had killed four US soldiers. He chose not to wear the bulky bomb protection suit. "You can't react to any sniper fire and you get tunnel-vision," he explains. So, protected by just a helmet and standard-issue flak jacket, he began what bomb disposal officers term "the longest walk", stepping gingerly into a 5ft deep and 8ft wide crater.

The earth shifted slightly and he saw a Senao base station with a wire leading from it. He cut the wire and used his 7 inch knife to probe the ground. "I found a piece of red detonating cord between my legs," he says. "That's when I knew I was screwed."

Realizing he had been sucked into a trap, Sgt Burghardt, 35, yelled at everyone to stay back. At that moment, an insurgent, probably watching through binoculars, pressed a button on his mobile phone to detonate the secondary device below the sergeant's feet. "A chill went up the back of my neck and then the bomb exploded," he recalls. "As I was in the air I remember thinking, 'I don't believe they got me.' I was just ticked off they were able to do it. Then I was lying on the road, not able to feel anything from the waist down."

His colleagues cut off his trousers to see how badly he was hurt. None could believe his legs were still there. "My dad's a Vietnam vet who's paralyzed from the waist down," says Sgt Burghardt. "I was lying there thinking I didn't want to be in a wheelchair next to my dad and for him to see me like that. They ! started to cut away my pants and I felt a real sharp pain and blood trickling down. Then I wiggled my toes and I thought, 'Good, I'm in business.' "As a stretcher was brought over, adrenaline and anger kicked in. "I decided to walk to the helicopter. I wasn't going to let my team-mates see me being carried away on a stretcher." He stood and gave the insurgents who had blown him up a one-fingered salute. "I flipped them one. It was like, 'OK, I lost that round but I'll be back next week'."

Copies of a photograph depicting his defiance, taken by Jeff Bundy for the Omaha World-Herald, adorn the walls of homes across America and that of Col John Gronski, the brigade commander in Ramadi, who has hailed the image as an exemplar of the warrior spirit. Sgt Burghardt's injuries - burns and wounds to his legs and buttocks - kept him off duty for nearly a month and could have earned him a ticket home. But, like his father - who was awarded a Bronze Star and three Purple Hearts for being wounded in action in Vietnam - he stayed in Ramadi to engage in the battle against insurgents who are forever coming up with more ingenious ways of killing Americans.

From a new found comrade Mike the Marine, and it's so obvious, America is Batman.

I couldn't agree more. Although I'd say Canada used to be Alfred, and might be Alfred again, but right now is the Joker's (aka FRANCE's) mol, which is a downright dirty shame but true.

"... America IS Batman. Think about it:

-We are the richest guy in town. We run Wayne Enterprises. We have more money than everybody. We can be extravagant, buying hotels and building sometimes self-important stuff on a whim. But a lot of that is not really what we’re all about… people often forget that we’re the most philanthropic guy in town, too.

- Where do we get those wonderful toys? From a lot of places actually, but we’re the only one who has them, and we use them to kick a lot of ass.

- We’ve suffered tragedy, and it was this tragedy which spurred us to action. We have overcome our worst fears and then visited them upon evil doers. Justice is what we are after, and we will not stop until the good people of Gotham don’t need the Batsignal anymore.

The rest of the Westernized World, however, is Rachel Dawes - Bruce Wayne’s girlfriend - played by Katie Holmes. How so?

- She’s a lawyer, more interested in “the process,” and under the impression that justice and vengeance are always mutually exclusive, when in actuality we know that they sometimes – not always, but sometimes - happily coincide...."

Seething Midwest Explodes Over Lombardi Cartoons

Green Bay, WI - Like a pot of bratwurst left unattended at a Lambeau Field pregame party, simmering tensions in the strife-torn Midwest boiled over once again today as rioting mobs of green-and-gold clad youth and plump farm wives rampaged through Wisconsin Denny’s and IHOPs, burning Texas toast and demanding apologies and extra half-and-half.

"This is a very serious issue. Google has put its financial bottom line over basic human rights. An American company is assisting the Chinese government in a Stalinistic airbrushing of faith from the internet. That Google is helping Beijing wipe Jesus Christ off the web at the same time that it is defying a fairly routine request from the US government for search data to determine if kids are accessing hard core p)rn is unconscionable... "

Is it just for money that Google is doing this, or are they commysimps?

Cavaco Silva finished well ahead of the two Socialist candidates in the Portuguese Presidential elections.

Portugal voters elect a reform-minded economist as President to help boost the stagnant economy, run by socialists. Cavaco Silva is the first center-right candidate voted into office since 1974.Silva becomes president of Western Europe's poorest country and understands he has no small task ahead of him:

The bad news is that in Portugal, the Presidency is largely symbolic.

Mr Cavaco Silva is the first centre-right politician to fill the largely ceremonial post of president since Portugal's 1974 revolution.

He told supporters after the results were announced: "The task before us is not small, the work will be long and demanding."

Mr Cavaco Silva vowed to work with the Socialist government, saying: "I know by my own experience the value of cooperation among government bodies."

Mr Soares - the Socialists' official candidate - told supporters: "The results went against my expectations. I accept this defeat with a feeling of mission accomplished." (emphasis added)

Huh? The defeated socialist accepts the defeat with a feeling of "mission accomplished"? WTF? I gueass he had to say something -- no law it had to make any sense.

It will be interesting to watch Canada & Portugal over the next decade. Both have had what is on the surface an astonishing about-face in voter policy. But both, on second glance, are quite conflicted and with very limited power. The sign of things to come or just a minor hitch in the socialist giddeeup? We'll see. World wide trends are, however, on the side of the angels (and against the socialists if you were wondering).

11:37 - It looks like the split will be 124-103 Tories, with BQ getting 51 and 29 going to the NDP. Jack Layton is congratulating the crowd. The NDP wound up increasing their representation by a half-dozen ridings, a bit fewer than we first thought, but still an impressive showing. The Tories took a six-point lead in the overall voting, a bit less than predicted, but right about what SES Research showed in its final polling. Both parties will wind up with bragging rights tonight, and the Liberals and BQ will have to ask themselves what happened. Paul Martin, the answer for the Libs, will not last much longer as leader of the Grits when that question gets answered.

Congratulations to the Tories, and to Canada, which showed how a national election should be held.

Welcome to the party, Canada. 12 years behind your big brother, but better late than never. Y'all have been very socialist for a long time, plus you've got a plague of Frenchies, so I don't really have all that much hope for you. However, a sincere good luck from me to you. Let us know if we can help. But sometimes, y'all can be hard to understand; for instance (Steyn live blogging the election):

The other story of the night looks like being the non-breakthrough of the NDP. Some of us thought that the seeping of Liberal support to the left would be as serious as the seeping to the right. In fact, insofar as the scarification strategy worked, it seems to have scared wobbling Grits out of the Dipper camp and back to Nanny.

Seen at low tide

HummingbirdFinally, my first hummingbirds. Saw them on a fire bush in Crystal Beach, FL. My rental's neighbor's yard is all xeriscaped, which is ugly to me but just fine with the little hummers. At first, I thought they were the biggest hornets I'd ever seen.

Flamingo!One of these dudes flew right over my house. I couldn't believe it. And please don't tell me it was a roseated spoonbill because it was a frickin' flamingo, dude! Huge and pink and right there above me. I was like so freaking out, you know?

Black SkimmerThese beauties are getting scarce, but one flew by yesterday at low tide on the hunt for minnows.

Dead sea turtlecool, but smelly

Reddish EgretThese have been hanging out around the pool quite a bit lately. Must be a new group of adolesent birds -- the youngsters like to hunt where the water is clear, and it takes them a day to figure out there are not now and never will be fish in the swimming pool no matter how clear the water.

Sand Piper

Brown PelicanI saw a flock of about 200 of these at Disappearing Island yesterday, just south of Anclote Island on the west coast of FL. Good to see such a large flock.

Wood PeckerThey've developed a sudden interest in the orange tree, which just went into bloom.